Coming soon is the new documentary, titled Daytime Revolution, which focuses on the legendary week of programs John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted on The Mike Douglas Show in 1972. Variety reported, the 108-minute doc, which has just wrapped production, “Uses archival footage from each of the five 70-minute shows as well as interviews with six surviving guests, including Ralph Nader, to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the unprecedented week. While Ono and Sean Lennon did not participate on camera, the duo approved and creatively consulted on the project.” No release date has been announced for the film, which is looking for a distribution deal.
Directed by Erik Nelson said of the new “Lenono” doc: “It’s become a cliche that Woodstock was the defining moment of the counterculture. When I watched these broadcasts in their entirety, I realized that, in reality, this week in 1972, when John Lennon and Yoko Ono essentially hijacked the airwaves and presented the best minds and dreams of their generation to the widest possible mass audience of what was then called 'Middle America,' was as far as the counterculture would ever get. Not just music but a prescient blueprint for the future we now live in.”
The couple was able to showcase the counterculture to and approximate 40 million homes each day, introducing the masses to the benefits of a macrobiotic diet, the cutting edge comedy of George Carlin, the music of Chuck Berry, Black Panther chairman Bobby Seale, and political activist Ralph Nader.
Although John Lennon had met Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Fats Domino back in the 1960's — Chuck Berry's appearance on The Mike Douglas Show marked the pairs first meeting. Lennon was effusive in his praise of rock's first great songwriter: “He was writin' good lyrics and intelligent lyrics in the '50s, when people were singin', 'oh baby, I love you so.' And it was people like him that influenced our generation to try and make sense out of the songs, rather than just say 'do wah daddy' — y'know?”